Too fat, fat you must cut lean

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Alright, sorry, sorry, sorry.I’ve been trying to get this other thing going which was recently hacked and instead of working on it I decided to end the neglect with some super dope exclusive(ish) material for you and yours.Both are instrumental.1 is straight up hip hop in the best sense of the word and the other is hip hop on pharmacy-grade hallucinogenic (think Ninja Tune that is not totally avant-arde and ridiculous).

First up we have my man King E’s, “Heart Beats” project.Those of you unfamiliar with him should check his MySpace out.El Rey's been making beats for the past 8 years in one of the most relevant and dyanmic cities in the history of Hip Hop, Pittsburg.Just consider it further data to confirm Rakim Allah’s statement, “it ain’t where you from!”All the beats are strictly sample based. The King is not a fan of synths.Not a fan of using them.Not a fan of anyone that does use them and will fight you to the death using only the box of his purchased copy of Fruity Loops and a loaded AK if he finds out you do.While his sound can easily be compared to 9th Wonder, there are a lot of cats that sound like 9th Wonder, but the difference is he does what he does well.Beats and samples get flipped like a Triple Lindy and really well structured and well put together.It’s not easy to do an interesting or refreshing take on Ayer’s “Sunshine” and he does.I also like the work he did with Minnie Ripperton's “Lovin' You” I reference the two most common sources because they are two most common sources but they still sound interesting.He included the following blurb with the songs, “This is an instrumental album that I put together with the valentines theme in mind. I feel it’s some of (if not) my best work to date. I really hope you take the time to listen to it. And please listen to it with someone you love, that’s why I made it.” Aww. He'll kill your ass too so don't get it twisted, he just is in love with love. This is only the first act and next year it will have M.C.’s and possibly other vocalists over the beats presented here. Aww shit son.

Secondly, we have PSY/OPSogist’s (pronounced [sigh-ops-oh-jist]) offering entitled “Suffused With Static.” I really am not sure where to start with this dude.If we are talking genres, I’d just stick him in Electronica, simply because he uses electricity to make music and not because it is techno or trance or any of that hippy music.If I was to peg his style it would be fucking ill.Psy (which he will be refered to as from now on because I don’t actually like to type) twists the shit out of beats till juices run down legs and snares and kicks get distorted and panned like Greek mythology. I’m a big fan of delays and fucked up vocal samples getting tweaked and slowed down.Psy does this.Another thing he does really well is take shit that you kind of think would not work together and somehow make it gel. Some people say he’s hacked Reason and Ableton, some people say he’s a fucked up dude with wicked beats, some people say he looks like Diana Ross.Fact of the matter is he’s a humble dude with an exceptional amount of talent.What is one the more irritating of his idiosyncrasies is the fact that he’s only been doing it for 2 years.I mean, he played bass in guitar in bands previously but after his gentle and soft-spoken friend Raven Mack of Solaris Earth Pipeline approached him a couple years ago about working together and providing some beats for them, he pretty much has not looked back.While this is his most recent and most beloved by me, he has a slew of other work to check out at his blog. Sonically, he spends a lot of time sounding like a less pretentious Ninja Tune artist, but there are almost RZA-esque moments like on “Transmigration” or nearly boom bap tracks, “Potent Spirits” sprinkled throughout that make for a dynamic and interesting aural stroll.It’s also lovingly laced with some gnarly ass P.C.P. and a vile of liquid acid.Do yourself a favor, download this shit, burn it to a cd or stick it on your new fangled music toy and put on some headphones, spark one and dig it.Thou shall not be disappointed! 01 - Intro02 - Birth, Space And Time03 - Between The Keys04 - Transmigration (Stranger)05 - A Quick Reminder06 - V-Sis07 - Dreamland Happy Times For All08 - Service Preperation09 - Non Music10 - Potent Spirits11 - Opposing Drives12 - Time (A. Not Just Madness B. Clarity C. Anaethetised)13 - Outro

Saturday, February 9, 2008

So it's been a minute but I've been steadily working on this other site. The first week went prety well. This week I'm not feeling the sample as much or rather, I've fucked with it so much that I want to kill that Italian fucker and the majority of it's family. But this is not about my limited ability to play around with sounds while simultaneously downloading huge amounts of porn I'll never have the time to watch. This is about the month of February which here at treebeats is for breaks. The original UBB was realeased on Street Beat Records in 86 and over the next 5 years 24 more were released to the delight and cheering of many a dj and producer. Most of it was "obscure" (digging hadn't really become the culture it is now yet) funk but there was also gems from Billy Squire and The Steve Miller Band. You kind of have to remember that a lot of cats that listened to hip hop hadn't ever heard of Steve Miller or his hippy band back then. You kind of have to remember actually that none of this stuff was obvious back then and made for a huge volume of music to fuck with. A lot of the breaks were already looped in the record making for easy juggling for your favorite DJ hooked up to a lightpost for power bringing in Debbie D to celebrate Ramo's new home and baby. It's a great place to begin to learn how to make beats and begin to dig. It's really fun just listening to it and trying to name as many people as possible that had sampled the song. Well, "fun" if your nerdy things like that.

Anyway, Here is volumes 1-25 in their entirety (except for 8 which I don't have the real version of) I made cute little folder pics and numbered them all because I'm retarded that way.

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

So, there's one more day but I wanted to get the Class Is In Session thing out and big up a gimme. I can’t rustle much up on the “Class Is In Session” record. It was done around 2005. It was collaboration between 9th Wonder and Pete Rock. Grap Luva and Phonte were involved. The beats are dope. If anyone has some info on why it came about or any back-story, please let me know.And Premier really is just that dude. I’m putting up The Question Remains instrumental. You’re probably like, “this beat isn’t a good example of Primo. I disagree. He took a two count from one of the more popular samples of the time and flipped it. He’s the king of finding things that can be looped infinitum and still sound fresh. He has the most widely recognizable scratching style in the world.From GangStarr to Lord Finesse Jeru to Nas to Biggie. On and on and it’s all pretty consistent. That’s about 20 years of not sucking. That ain’t easy. There’s plenty more info on him, but you guys are hip to it. And I’m lazy.Pace.

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

It’s going to be a weekly beat battle. Sample sources will be provided by the likes ofMr Mass from Mass Corporation, Dr OK from And It Don't Stop, DJ Nes from Dirty Waters, or Scholar from Souled On. Then we have a bunch of talented cats, including yours truly, take the song and sample it and flip it any way they want over the next week. The beats are then posted and a Panel (including Travis from WYDU, Eric from WTR, Max from Hip Hop Isn't Dead, Mike Dikk from Dumpin.Net, Andrew from Strictly Beats and King E from the Justus League boards) will discuss what they liked and/or didn't like and Rank them. There is also a public vote which will be ranked and scored as well. The cat or kitten with the most points wins and can brag to all of there interweb friends about how they won and there friends will be like “OMFG. U’r fresh.” And the winner will be like, “ROTFLMAO” and their friends will be like “PIR. TTL” or something along those lines. Stop by if you feel like it or if you want to contribute.

Next up we have the video for Gnotes new single “Missing You”

I can’t say I’m the biggest fan of the video but conceptually I like what they did. I also like what Gnotes does a lot. (Also coming out soon on Gnawledge Records is Afro DZ ak's solo joint. I'm not familiar with his work but if it's from Gnawledge, it's got to be interesting.) It’s just the dude in the video doesn’t fit in my opinion. Not that I need some dude with a pimp cup smaking Buffy The Body’s freakishly rotund glutes, but the dude just seems out of place. But, there’s nothing wrong with taking risks unless you are jumping out of planes naked.So nothing to post. Again? Yes, again. I haven’t been able to post all the producers I wanted but I’ve been producing myself so there. I will post the 9th Wonder and Pete Rock “Class Is In Session” and some other stuff before the month of beats comes to an end. I’ve also decided to make February the month of breaks since I’ve been spending so much time thinking about it lately. Expect the Ultimate Breaks & Beats, The Dusty Fingers collection, The Super Breaks & Beats, and some others. Nothing too obscure because that’s mine, but there is a lot of stuff still flippable in what I’ll put up. Plus there is always a new batch of 9th Wonder wannabes who have yet to hear some of it.

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

I saw Ladysmith Black Mambazo the other night. If you get a chance to see them, go. It’s a South African male acacpella group that has been around for 50 years. The layers and harmonies they come up with are fucking amazing and leave your jaw kind of loose when you watch them. You probably will recognize them from Paul Simon’s Graceland album but they have a huge body of work that is worth checking unless you are one dimesional and can’t listen to anything that is in another language. If that’s the case, you’ll probably prefer listening to American Gangster again. Watching them preform is almost like watching a martial art. They kick and squat and punch. It's really worth checking out. More recently, they were nominated for a few grammys. Really cool stuff that, sadly, was not included in my letter “L” listing (my one mistake). Secondly, and completely unrelated, I saw “Cloverfield” and “I Am Legend” last weekend. I don’t know if it’s the fact that I haven’t been able to go to a flick since Transformers and before that since my boy was born, but they were both pretty good. Cloverfield is dope because the story is told completely by one handheld camera. Now, my dad said he felt nauseous watching it and some people may feel the same way (think Blair Witch Project) but it submerged you in the movie and was an awesome way to tell the story (sans the beginning plot set up, love triangle, pretty & rich Manhattan people that live in ridiculously nice lofts shit) Also the 2 main hotties in it are muy caliente. I thought Will Smith wasn’t bad in I am Legend either. I’m a sucker for most things “zombie” and except for an ending that was horrible it was a good watch.Third, I am ironing out the details of a new venture that will include a lot of your favorite bloggers, a lot of talented cats and a lot of beats. Oooo. How excitingly covert. It has taken up some time for setting up and that’s why I haven’t posted any more beat nuts.(punny)So, I’ll get another cat up either tonight or tomorrow for your continued aural ecstasy.Pace.

Monday, January 21, 2008

Joeseph Beats (god given name) is straight out of the biggest little state in the union. He’s a sample based producer and here’s a tip for you aspiring producers that keep getting newer equipment and software to make your beats that much better. He uses SAWPro on a 333 MHz, 128MB RAM, Windows 98 computer. Now, I’ve never used SAWPro but I’ve used a lot of Cakewalk and some Cubase and no Pro Tools. My point is this, stop getting more and more shit. Pick something that you have and like learn the fuck out of it. Spend some time with it. Flirt. Play hard to get, whatever but learn that particular piece of software or hardware in and out. Then you can build on that. It will help you define your own sound. If it doesn’t do something that someone else does, then you should both stop trying to do what someone else does and also figure out a way to make it do that. 9th Wonder does his shit on Fruity Loops and Cool Edit Pro. Shadow did Endtroducing all on an MPC-60. Just learn some thing and define your sound. Yeah, so Joe Beats is really dope. Really moody and brooding type shit. His first release, Reverse Discourse came out in 2003 and he’s had 3 or 4 since then. I’m putting up Side 1 of the vinyl version of Diverse Recourse (2007) which has some tracks not on the CD. It’s way to recent for my liking to post, thus only one side (like that makes a difference but I’m inconsistent and irrational so sue me. Actually don’t sue me but hate me) but the shit is dope and I don’t think he gets nearly enough shine. But, I like it a lot and January is the month of beats. He’s also works with Sage Francis (another RI thug) as Non-Prophets. Good shit too. Feel the funk baby.Pace.01 - Don't Front...02 - Smart Dumb Person03 - Me Talk Pretty04 - Kiss Of Life05 - Sleep Or Bust06 - Strategery07 - Friday AfternoonDoin his thing.